Labyrinth of Stars by Liu Marjorie M

Author:Liu, Marjorie M. [Liu, Marjorie M.]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9781937007850
Publisher: Ace
Published: 2014-02-25T08:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 16

NEVER take magic for granted. The minute you do, it will fuck you up.

I have some pride. What good it does me. When I realized I wasn’t going anywhere, I used my own two legs and walked the hell away from the quarantine zone. I avoided all Mahati. I trusted the boys to keep other demons away. I didn’t think too hard about where I was going. Only one place on this land where I felt truly safe—and the dead were there, too.

The earth on the hill had been torn during the battle: everywhere, chunks of dirt and grass, and deep holes. Some darts were still in the ground, and broken pieces of spears. I smelled blood. Or maybe that was my breath.

I was relieved to see the old oak still standing, untouched. We’d been on our way to the farmhouse when the giants attacked, and the creatures seemed to have bypassed this spot. The grass around my mother and grandmother’s grave didn’t even look scuffed—and the boulder that covered them was still in place. I climbed on top of its broad, flat surface. Lay on my back, staring at the stars.

Whatever I’d done had worked. Twenty minutes after taking that blood into my body, I felt sick as hell. Walking up the hill took all my strength, and just resting on this rock was making me breathe in ways that felt like my lungs were about to implode. My skin prickled worse than ever; and it was the fever, the burn, that hot lick of death settling in. I couldn’t believe how fast it was hitting me.

“I was stupid,” I said to Zee, who sat beside me, very still and quiet. “I got lazy.”

He said nothing. Raw and Aaz flopped down against my legs, dragging a six-pack of beer behind them, two tubs of fried chicken, and a small chain saw.

“M&M’s,” I said absently, and moments later, one of them put a large crunchy plastic bag in my hand, already open. I started popping chocolate. Dek and Mal slithered down my arms, and I fed them, too. Their purrs radiated heat.

“No Hunter has died of disease, right?” I asked the boys.

“Kill it in our sleep,” Zee rasped. “Only one old mother poisoned. Refused to listen.”

“Idiot.”

He sighed. “Hated us. Hated daughter. Hated all her old mothers. Tried to forget life. Tried with blood and war. Tried with strong drink. Could not kill herself, so let another.”

“How did her daughter respond?”

“Blamed us. Did not live long past own daughter. Better, after that.”

I bet. “When was this?”

Dek hummed, then chirped. Zee nodded at him. “Four thousand years. More than. Came by boat and foot across ice-north in winter. Walked down along coast. Walked for years. Walked into jungle. Walked into blood.”

Sick as I felt, that still made me smile. “So my ancestors came to this continent four thousand years ago, then rambled on down to South America?”

Zee shrugged. “Had time. No fear. When no fear, go places.”

Such true words. But I was envious of those women, envious that their world had been simpler.

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